Incubus

Oooh-wah     oooh-wah     oooh-wah     oooh-wah       When footlights     dim in reverence     to prescient passion Forewarned my audience leaves the stage     floating ahead perfumed shift Within the stammering silence the face that launched a thousand frames Betrayed  by a porcelain tear    a stained career   Oooh-wah     oooh-wah You played     this scene before    you played     this scene before I the mote in your eye I I I I the mote in your eye A misplaced reaction    reaction                                          The darkroom unleashes imagination in pornographic images In which you will always be the star always be the star untouchable Unapproachable constant in the darkness in the darkness (in the darkness) Nursing an erection a misplaced reaction With no flower to place before this gravestone And the walls become enticingly newspaper thin But that would be developing the negative view And you have to be exposed in voyeuristic colour The public act let you model your shame on the mannequin catwalk catwalk Let the cats walk (and the cat walks) Oooh-wah     oooh-wah I’ve played     this scene before    I’ve played     this scene before I the mote in your eye I I I I the mote in your eye A misplaced reaction    satisfaction    "An irritating speck of dirt that came from absolutely nowhere"         You can’t brush me under the carpet you can’t hide me under the stairs The custodian of your private fears your leading actor of yesteryear Who as you crawled out of the alleys of obscurity Sentenced to rejection in the morass of anonymity You who I directed with a lover’s will you who I let hypnotise the lens You who I let bathe in the spotlight’s glare You who wiped me from your memory like a greasepaint mask Just like a greasepaint mask                                                                                               But now I’m the snake in the grass    the ghost of film reels past I’m the producer of your nightmare and the performance has just begun      It’s just begun                 It’s just begun                               Your perimeter of courtiers jerk like celluloid puppets As you stutter paralysed with rabbit’s eyes Searing the shadows flooding the wings To pluck elusive salvation from the understudy’s lips Retrieve the soliloquy maintain the obituary My cue line in the last act and you wait in silent solitude Waiting for the prompt waiting for the prompt waiting for the prompt   Waiting for the prompt waiting for the prompt waiting for the prompt   You’ve play  -  ed this scene before